Episode #10: What is branding really – the branding Archetypes with Ashleigh from Citrine & Sol

Meet Ashleigh, the founder of Citrine & Sol. Citrine and Sol is a branding studio dedicated to helping women build authentic brands by embodying archetypal personalities most aligned with them.

But before Ashleigh was able to build her branding business, she first had a 9-5 teaching job, balancing both the business and her daily work. As she took on more and more clients, she found that there was something missing in her business—a core piece lacking in the whole process.

That’s when she found the power and potential of branding archetypes.

The archetype is a list of 12 ways of being created by Carl Jung. It wasn’t necessarily intended for branding as these archetypes can be seen throughout books, movies, art, and business.

However, many branding specialists and designers have found how it can help entrepreneurs dig deep into their visual identity and core messaging.

Ashleigh was one of them (but she took it further, eventually offering brand kits according to each archetype!). After she took a step back to research and discover more about her own mission and how she’s contributing to the world, she realized that incorporating the brand archetypes in her branding process will help early-stage entrepreneurs in clarifying their message and identity.

Listen to Ashleigh and Stephanie as they talk about visual branding differences between archetypes, how your personality shows in your messaging, and why branding is more than just a logo.

In this Episode:

(1:26) Ashleigh’s mission behind Citrine & Sol

(3:00) Realizing that there was a core missing piece in her new business

(4:40) Why branding is not just all about your logo

(8:34) On branding archetypes

(13:48) Showing up as your archetype for better brand messaging

(16:32) Visual branding differences between various archetypes

(19:53) How to find out your brand archetype

(21:36) Building your brand around your strongest archetypes

(23:22) DIY-ing your branding

(28:48) What triggers Ashleigh about the branding industry

Episode Snippets:

“It’s really quite sad that almost most people are led down this path thinking that a brand is just a logo and a color palette. And that is like the tip of the iceberg. And before you even get to that point, you need to know why you’re here, what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for.”

“What ends up happening is that you design a brand that looks good but has absolutely no core element to it. It doesn’t speak to your audience. It speaks to a trend.”

“Basically I’m showing up as my authentic self, I’m putting these strong personalities out there. The people that resonate with those personality types are coming back to me.”

“You need to think about the emotions you’re trying to evoke from your audience.”

Follow Ashleigh from Citrine & Sol:

@citrineandsol